An immigration tribunal has rejected an appeal by Karam Majdi, a 27-year-old failed asylum seeker jailed for raping a 14-year-old girl, ruling he is not bisexual and can be deported to Egypt. Judge R Abdar found Majdi had failed to show he was not a danger to the public and dismissed his claim that returning to Egypt would expose him to persecution, concluding his deportation remained in the public interest. The ruling matters because it closes off a last-ditch legal attempt to avoid removal following his conviction for a serious sexual offence against a child.

Majdi arrived in the UK by small boat in 2016 claiming to be an unaccompanied Syrian child, but the tribunal rejected this and questioned the authenticity of his Syrian identity document. He was jailed for raping a 14-year-old girl he met online in 2017, in an attack in East Croydon that left her bruised, and was released in 2021 after serving half of a seven-year sentence, having been assessed as high risk to children. His bisexuality claim, made since 2021, was described by the Home Office as a fabrication, with no evidence of relationships with men produced; the tribunal also heard he has since been convicted of cocaine possession and driving offences, and faces a further court appearance next year over alleged cannabis possession.